As a special bonus to Tom Haire's Trojan game previews this year, we are thrilled to report that the USCFootball.com has not completely lost the services of X&O game preview guru Ted Venegas.

Each week, Ted will be providing his thoughts to us on the upcoming USC opponent, and those notes will be a part of each preview. This week: Washington.

The Huskies are playing decent football right now. Sure, UCLA is the best team that they have beaten, and the Bruins don't exactly look like world beaters right now. Still, the Huskies are gaining some confidence, and that makes them a dangerous football team.

It could be argued that Washington State hadn't beat anyone when the the Trojans went to Pullman, and that didn't keep the Cougs from being extremely competitive because the Cougs were confident. As long as the Trojan offense continues to average less than 12 points per game in the first half, their opponents will be confident, so the key rests in offensive development.